Making space for herself and others
Phoenix mother advocates for Afro-Latinx mental health
As a flight attendant, Kisha Gulley never thought her career would take such a drastic turn.
What started out as a way to combat loneliness and deal with postpartum depression, turned into a vehicle to help support parents of children with autism and raise awareness around issues impacting Black and Latino communities.
Born in Panama, Gulley identifies as an AfroLatina. Not finding mental health spaces where her identity was entirely embraced, or understood, she decided to surround herself and work with people who truly valued her heritage and wanted to effect change in her community — especially when it came to navigating parenting with a child diagnosed with autism.
But getting to that point took years. More than a decade before becoming a mental health advocate in the Afro-Latinx community, it was difficult for her to find information on how to cope and educate herself.
That’s how The Kisha Project was born. Founded in 2008, Gulley’s platform, accessible through Instagram @panamakish and her blog, connects Black mothers like her with mental health and parenting resources. She offers support for families of children with autism while highlighting the social issues that impact Black and Latino communities.
Embracing her Afro-Latina identity as a Black
Panamanian living in Phoenix is a major part of that work, advancing visibility for intersectional identities and prioritizing dignity, education and reliability.
Gulley is not a therapist — a fact she makes abundantly clear on her platform — but not everyone advocates for their kids in the same way, she told The Arizona Republic.
Her platform was born out of her own need to find information pertinent to her Afro-Latina identity. According to Gulley, many autism advocates do not center Black lives as she does, leaving out essential resources for folks who live with autism while also navigating the many levels of discrimination and systemic challenges that Black people deal with on a regular basis.
“And I can’t have that, you know?” Gulley said. “You’re not advocating for everyone, you’re only advocating for people who look like you. My kid has to deal with a lot more, he has to learn how to deal with discrimination, like racial discrimination, and ... that’s really hard for him to process because of his autism.”
“Once I started getting messages from people telling me how much my content resonated with them, it really made me feel like what I was doing mattered.” Kisha Gulley Mental health advocate
The Kisha Project: A resource for herself and others
One in seven women can develop postpartum depression, according to the National Library of Medicine.
Gulley experienced that firsthand. And because her husband, a pilot, was constantly out of town for work, she dealt with her depression by herself.
Soon after, her oldest son was diagnosed with autism, sensory processing disorder and ADHD.
The Kisha Project became her avenue for finding and spreading resources for mothers like herself, in search of information for their Black children living with autism and other mental health issues.
“The experience (in Black families) is just completely different, and we really don’t talk about it in our community,” Gulley said. “So, I decided to be open about my experience because I couldn’t find anything.”
She initially used The Kisha Project and her blog posts as an online journal.
Gulley wanted a space that her kids could also reference. It was something that was just hers and she poured her heart into it.
Although launched in 2008, Gulley didn’t really start taking her blog seriously until 2017 when she would make content about how lonely she was feeling while dealing with postpartum depression. Before having kids and really getting into the world of content creation, Gulley would post about her career as a flight attendant.
When exposing her more vulnerable side to the world, Gulley realized the impact her work had on others in her community, and it was so much bigger than her.
She started getting comments in her inbox, especially from people living with autism who were happy to see a supportive parent.
The first milestone that Gulley hit, she said, was when she reached 10,000 followers on Instagram.
Gulley and her husband were then asked to be guests on the podcast “Fake Doctors, Real Friends” with Zach Braff and Donald Faison from the show “Scrubs.” After the episode aired, a handful of people reached out to Gulley and told her they looked up to her, which was a big moment, she said.
Now, Gulley has about 17,000 followers on Instagram and over 2,000 people have subscribed to The Kisha Project.
On her platform, she incorporates recipes, selfcare, and style tips to create meaningful and uplifting content.
Want to make Panamanian empanadas? She’s got the recipe just for you.
Aren’t sure how to navigate the conversation of race and Latinidad with your children? She’s got resources and her own experience to share.
Not sure how to check in with your kids about their mental health? She’s got tips for that too.
She was also diagnosed with ADHD and makes an effort to talk about it more and make it less taboo. She likes to think her work plays a hand in that conversation.
People have many questions for her, she said, and if she doesn’t know the answer, she makes sure to direct them to someone who does.
So far, she feels like her work has had a positive
impact.
“It’s so scary sometimes when you’re sharing so much of yourself, especially when it’s this personal,” Gulley said. “You never know how it’s going to be received. Once I started getting messages from people telling me how much my content resonated with them, it really made me feel like what I was doing mattered.”
Alexys Brandon, a friend and collaborator of Gulley’s, said her perspective on autism and mental health is needed. But above all, her ability to bring empathy into the conversation is what keeps their friendship going.
“Her blog is very much needed in this day and time just so that people are more aware of what other people are going through,” Brandon said. “I know we all have our own individual issues, but it’s also important to lead with understanding when you’re dealing with other people from different walks of life ... I really do love her blog and how she highlights that.”
Brandon met Gulley in June 2022 through social media. Gulley reached out to work with Brandon on content and the two have been inseparable since.
As a Black wife, mother and photographer, Brandon said Gulley has helped her stand up for herself and be confident in different spaces.
“You know, oftentimes it feels like you have to choose a side, but I feel like who she connects with is everyone that can identify with not wanting to have to choose between either or but just standing in your truth,” Brandon said. “Her community that’s kind of surrounded around her has uplifted her, so I’m sure they’re feeling that impact.”
Influencer and friend Denisse Myrick, @chasingdenisse on Instagram, met Gulley through social media as well about two years ago, at a time when meeting other content creators of color, especially women, was truly hard for her.
Meeting Gulley made Myrick feel like it gave her visibility and gave her someone to relate to, someone to talk to about parenting and relationships. Together, they are able to be honest about their struggles, Myrick said.
But beyond struggles, what Myrick most admires about Gulley, is her ability to celebrate her and her family’s lives.
“She really normalizes a happy life which you don’t see a lot of when it comes to parents with autistic children,” Myrick said. “You see more self-help stuff or online like on TikTok you’ll see a lot of complaints or more highlighting struggles. And she really does a great job at celebrating the joys of adjusting to that kind of parenting.”
Building a network of support via her AfroLatinidad
Gulley has been making an effort to talk about her AfroLatinidad more.
Originally from Panama but currently residing in Phoenix, she quickly realized she was naïve early on in thinking she would wholeheartedly be accepted as a Black woman among other Latinas.
Now she works to push the conversation further and make space for herself and others in a room.
She asks people what they’re doing in their local communities to ensure Afro-Latinx women are treated equally.
Gulley has experienced her fair share of weird looks and assumptions when she refers to herself as a Black woman, people feel like she is separated from her Latina heritage.
“And I have to explain to them that the Afro in AfroLatina still means Black,” Gulley said. “I am still very much a Black woman; I am also a Latina woman. You can be both and (others) don’t understand that, they feel like if I call myself a Black woman then I’m disconnected from my culture, and that’s not the case at all. I’m very much connected to my culture. I was raised by my Panamanian family.”
Embracing that intersectionality in identities is how she raises her two sons, and it’s the same understanding she seeks in the collaborations she’s a part of.
“I am not really worried about having a seat at the table anymore as much as I am about building with people who have the same goals as I do, who have similar interests as I do,” Gulley said. “Because at the same time, a lot of people will say, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m all about inclusivity and all this and all of that,’ but once it’s really (time) to do some actionable steps, they really don’t want to hear what we have to say. Or else it’s just a little bit too far once we start talking about race.”
She’s realized that within the Latinx community, Panamanians aren’t talked about as much. So, she tries exposing people to Panamanian culture with The Kisha Project through food, culture and the influence it has on her as a mother — sharing her love of empanadas, sancocho and arroz con pollo or arroz con gandules.
At the same time, she wants to ensure her kids still have some of that culture in their lives.
Advocating for her children, especially her son who has autism, is part of the reason why The Kisha Project remains active, she said, but it also goes beyond that.
“I feel like I’m an advocate for everyone,” Gulley said. “I’m just not trying to do this for him. When he benefits, everybody benefits. My goals really are to grow my platform and, hopefully, I’m able to make other people feel a little bit more comfortable in this space.”